If DMV schools don't open in the fall, are you moving?

[Anonymous]

No. I just try to stay optimistic and assume my kids will be part of in person school soon. If we are virtual in Fall, I will be livid, but will keep plodding along. We can’t afford private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
No, OP, I'd be delighted. Kids won't have received the vaccine in September 2021, and can spread the virus just like adults.

You do realize that there might never be an approved vaccine for kids? Are you planning on keeping them home forever?

In case you’re not aware, vaccines have to prove overwhelming benefit vs cost to be approved. Given how incredibly, incredibly rare serious health issues in children resulting from covid are, it is absolutely not a given that any of the vaccines currently approved under EUA would (or should) be approved for use in children.

I’m not trying to be a jerk here. I have my moments during this pandemic just like everyone and of course we all want to protect our kids. But it’s good to start internalizing the following: when all adults who want to be vaccinated have been, this pandemic and the (warranted) restrictions placed on our society are finished.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. I just try to stay optimistic and assume my kids will be part of in person school soon. If we are virtual in Fall, I will be livid, but will keep plodding along. We can’t afford private.

I like your attitude. We all should remain positive, yet realistic. I hope we can be back for term 4, if not, then so be it. Hopefully our kids will start in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, the shifting goalposts are alienating parents all across the city. I'm a liberal, longtime DC resident with children in DCPS for 5 or 6 years. I support unions, but have become fed up with the lack of transparency, honesty, leadership I can have confidence in and intelligent planning to reopen public elementary schools on both the part of the WTU and the mayor and her people. I feel rotten for the hard-working and decent admins and teachers at our neighborhood DCPS. They clearly aren't getting the help or support they need from any quarter to plan or move ahead on good form.

Blaming the vicissitudes of a harsh pandemic for leadership failings and union intransigence at the expense of kids is no longer working for me. If things haven't changed by the fall, we're out of DCPS. Out of the area, perhaps. Out of the public school system, definitely.

I think blaming the union or DCPS is misguided. Remember, this is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime pandemic and where we are wasn't inevitable. What if back in February we had competent federal leadershipthat got ahead of it, with mass testing contract tracing, funding for school HVAC upgrades, etc. Yes, the goalposts are moving. Yes, the communication has been bad. But these entities were not set up to make these types of massive decisions. Not their expertise. It didn't have to be this way, don't forget that. Instead we got a do-nothing moron who wished it would go away and when it didn't, let everyone else figure it out however they could.

Not to defend Trump and his incompetent administration, but the truth is that countries like Germany that did have competent pandemic management now also are in a situation with high community spread, in some places much higher than DC. Yet, they managed to have open schools despite that. The difference is leadership at the top that didn't allow teachers unions to run the show, and a populace that didn't demand fancy HVAC upgrades in order to educate their kids. Yes, now German schools are closed since mid-December, but they will not be closed for the rest of the school year like we likely will be.

Schools are closed in Germany, Austria, and the UK, and will be into February, maybe even into March. No need to compare. Each country is doing what they think is needed. That is the difference. In hindsight we are all smarter, at least I'd like to think so. Currently we have the worst data since the spring outbreak. My thinking is not to open. The vaccine is here. My thinking is to wait until teachers and staff get the vaccine and open maybe later in spring. Moving from DC? My thinking is that it is even worse in just about every other state in the US. To all those out there wanting to open or move, calm your passions and think a little bit longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, the shifting goalposts are alienating parents all across the city. I'm a liberal, longtime DC resident with children in DCPS for 5 or 6 years. I support unions, but have become fed up with the lack of transparency, honesty, leadership I can have confidence in and intelligent planning to reopen public elementary schools on both the part of the WTU and the mayor and her people. I feel rotten for the hard-working and decent admins and teachers at our neighborhood DCPS. They clearly aren't getting the help or support they need from any quarter to plan or move ahead on good form.

Blaming the vicissitudes of a harsh pandemic for leadership failings and union intransigence at the expense of kids is no longer working for me. If things haven't changed by the fall, we're out of DCPS. Out of the area, perhaps. Out of the public school system, definitely.

I think blaming the union or DCPS is misguided. Remember, this is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime pandemic and where we are wasn't inevitable. What if back in February we had competent federal leadershipthat got ahead of it, with mass testing contract tracing, funding for school HVAC upgrades, etc. Yes, the goalposts are moving. Yes, the communication has been bad. But these entities were not set up to make these types of massive decisions. Not their expertise. It didn't have to be this way, don't forget that. Instead we got a do-nothing moron who wished it would go away and when it didn't, let everyone else figure it out however they could.

Not to defend Trump and his incompetent administration, but the truth is that countries like Germany that did have competent pandemic management now also are in a situation with high community spread, in some places much higher than DC. Yet, they managed to have open schools despite that. The difference is leadership at the top that didn't allow teachers unions to run the show, and a populace that didn't demand fancy HVAC upgrades in order to educate their kids. Yes, now German schools are closed since mid-December, but they will not be closed for the rest of the school year like we likely will be.

Schools are closed in Germany, Austria, and the UK, and will be into February, maybe even into March. No need to compare. Each country is doing what they think is needed. That is the difference. In hindsight we are all smarter, at least I'd like to think so. Currently we have the worst data since the spring outbreak. My thinking is not to open. The vaccine is here. My thinking is to wait until teachers and staff get the vaccine and open maybe later in spring. Moving from DC? My thinking is that it is even worse in just about every other state in the US. To all those out there wanting to open or move, calm your passions and think a little bit longer.

And you are basing this prediction on what...? No idea what Austria and the UK are doing, but nobody has announced a closure beyond January in Germany. I have family there and I highly doubt they will be out of school until March.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, the shifting goalposts are alienating parents all across the city. I'm a liberal, longtime DC resident with children in DCPS for 5 or 6 years. I support unions, but have become fed up with the lack of transparency, honesty, leadership I can have confidence in and intelligent planning to reopen public elementary schools on both the part of the WTU and the mayor and her people. I feel rotten for the hard-working and decent admins and teachers at our neighborhood DCPS. They clearly aren't getting the help or support they need from any quarter to plan or move ahead on good form.

Blaming the vicissitudes of a harsh pandemic for leadership failings and union intransigence at the expense of kids is no longer working for me. If things haven't changed by the fall, we're out of DCPS. Out of the area, perhaps. Out of the public school system, definitely.

I think blaming the union or DCPS is misguided. Remember, this is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime pandemic and where we are wasn't inevitable. What if back in February we had competent federal leadershipthat got ahead of it, with mass testing contract tracing, funding for school HVAC upgrades, etc. Yes, the goalposts are moving. Yes, the communication has been bad. But these entities were not set up to make these types of massive decisions. Not their expertise. It didn't have to be this way, don't forget that. Instead we got a do-nothing moron who wished it would go away and when it didn't, let everyone else figure it out however they could.

Not to defend Trump and his incompetent administration, but the truth is that countries like Germany that did have competent pandemic management now also are in a situation with high community spread, in some places much higher than DC. Yet, they managed to have open schools despite that. The difference is leadership at the top that didn't allow teachers unions to run the show, and a populace that didn't demand fancy HVAC upgrades in order to educate their kids. Yes, now German schools are closed since mid-December, but they will not be closed for the rest of the school year like we likely will be.

Schools are closed in Germany, Austria, and the UK, and will be into February, maybe even into March. No need to compare. Each country is doing what they think is needed. That is the difference. In hindsight we are all smarter, at least I'd like to think so. Currently we have the worst data since the spring outbreak. My thinking is not to open. The vaccine is here. My thinking is to wait until teachers and staff get the vaccine and open maybe later in spring. Moving from DC? My thinking is that it is even worse in just about every other state in the US. To all those out there wanting to open or move, calm your passions and think a little bit longer.

How insightful. Yes, we can absolutely compare the fact that other countries thought that public schools need to stay open as much as possible, and have acted accordingly. The fact that much of US schools never opened in the fall is shameful.

[Anonymous]

We moved for this year. But I can’t stay away for another year. Solo-parenting our kids has been very stressful as my spouse went back in person in June and I work full-time too, which I don’t think I could have managed on my own without school for a full school year. March- August were difficult enough without much help, my spouse was only remote April-June. Our kids miss their dad, I miss him as well, and living as quasi-nomads is trying, at best. But the children are happy, have been in school since late August, and we’ve only had two potential exposures since we started. One class shut for a week, the other, in a separate incident, for 3 days. There has been no community spread in the school.

For the curious-

No routine testing
Class size is max of 12
Children and teacher are masked all day inside (this is elementary school and I have a K student who remembers no different than wearing the mask at school; so age has not been an issue in remaining properly masked)
Classrooms were retrofitted with a bathroom so children never leave the classroom to go into common areas
They eat at their desks which are spaced 6 feet apart
Each classroom has an outdoor entrance so children don’t mingle between grades
Playground equipment is wiped down between class usage and each grade has a separate recess block

[Anonymous]

Good for you, PP. Glad you found a school systems where the teachers, and presumably their union, are willing to innovate to do the right thing by the kids despite the challenges. Ignore the doomsayers on this thread. They have their agendas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, the shifting goalposts are alienating parents all across the city. I'm a liberal, longtime DC resident with children in DCPS for 5 or 6 years. I support unions, but have become fed up with the lack of transparency, honesty, leadership I can have confidence in and intelligent planning to reopen public elementary schools on both the part of the WTU and the mayor and her people. I feel rotten for the hard-working and decent admins and teachers at our neighborhood DCPS. They clearly aren't getting the help or support they need from any quarter to plan or move ahead on good form.

Blaming the vicissitudes of a harsh pandemic for leadership failings and union intransigence at the expense of kids is no longer working for me. If things haven't changed by the fall, we're out of DCPS. Out of the area, perhaps. Out of the public school system, definitely.

I think blaming the union or DCPS is misguided. Remember, this is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime pandemic and where we are wasn't inevitable. What if back in February we had competent federal leadershipthat got ahead of it, with mass testing contract tracing, funding for school HVAC upgrades, etc. Yes, the goalposts are moving. Yes, the communication has been bad. But these entities were not set up to make these types of massive decisions. Not their expertise. It didn't have to be this way, don't forget that. Instead we got a do-nothing moron who wished it would go away and when it didn't, let everyone else figure it out however they could.

Not to defend Trump and his incompetent administration, but the truth is that countries like Germany that did have competent pandemic management now also are in a situation with high community spread, in some places much higher than DC. Yet, they managed to have open schools despite that. The difference is leadership at the top that didn't allow teachers unions to run the show, and a populace that didn't demand fancy HVAC upgrades in order to educate their kids. Yes, now German schools are closed since mid-December, but they will not be closed for the rest of the school year like we likely will be.

Schools are closed in Germany, Austria, and the UK, and will be into February, maybe even into March. No need to compare. Each country is doing what they think is needed. That is the difference. In hindsight we are all smarter, at least I'd like to think so. Currently we have the worst data since the spring outbreak. My thinking is not to open. The vaccine is here. My thinking is to wait until teachers and staff get the vaccine and open maybe later in spring. Moving from DC? My thinking is that it is even worse in just about every other state in the US. To all those out there wanting to open or move, calm your passions and think a little bit longer.

And you are basing this prediction on what...? No idea what Austria and the UK are doing, but nobody has announced a closure beyond January in Germany. I have family there and I highly doubt they will be out of school until March.

Here is a source for Germany: https://www.dw.com/en/covid-germany-schools-lockdown-digitalization/a-56147857
Here is a source for Austria: https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-austria/update-1-austria-extends-third-covid-19-lockdown-to-feb-8-idUSL1N2JS083
Here is a source for the UK: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain/uk-hopes-to-ease-lockdown-from-march-minister-idUSKBN29M06F

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, the shifting goalposts are alienating parents all across the city. I'm a liberal, longtime DC resident with children in DCPS for 5 or 6 years. I support unions, but have become fed up with the lack of transparency, honesty, leadership I can have confidence in and intelligent planning to reopen public elementary schools on both the part of the WTU and the mayor and her people. I feel rotten for the hard-working and decent admins and teachers at our neighborhood DCPS. They clearly aren't getting the help or support they need from any quarter to plan or move ahead on good form.

Blaming the vicissitudes of a harsh pandemic for leadership failings and union intransigence at the expense of kids is no longer working for me. If things haven't changed by the fall, we're out of DCPS. Out of the area, perhaps. Out of the public school system, definitely.

I think blaming the union or DCPS is misguided. Remember, this is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime pandemic and where we are wasn't inevitable. What if back in February we had competent federal leadershipthat got ahead of it, with mass testing contract tracing, funding for school HVAC upgrades, etc. Yes, the goalposts are moving. Yes, the communication has been bad. But these entities were not set up to make these types of massive decisions. Not their expertise. It didn't have to be this way, don't forget that. Instead we got a do-nothing moron who wished it would go away and when it didn't, let everyone else figure it out however they could.

Not to defend Trump and his incompetent administration, but the truth is that countries like Germany that did have competent pandemic management now also are in a situation with high community spread, in some places much higher than DC. Yet, they managed to have open schools despite that. The difference is leadership at the top that didn't allow teachers unions to run the show, and a populace that didn't demand fancy HVAC upgrades in order to educate their kids. Yes, now German schools are closed since mid-December, but they will not be closed for the rest of the school year like we likely will be.

Schools are closed in Germany, Austria, and the UK, and will be into February, maybe even into March. No need to compare. Each country is doing what they think is needed. That is the difference. In hindsight we are all smarter, at least I'd like to think so. Currently we have the worst data since the spring outbreak. My thinking is not to open. The vaccine is here. My thinking is to wait until teachers and staff get the vaccine and open maybe later in spring. Moving from DC? My thinking is that it is even worse in just about every other state in the US. To all those out there wanting to open or move, calm your passions and think a little bit longer.

And you are basing this prediction on what...? No idea what Austria and the UK are doing, but nobody has announced a closure beyond January in Germany. I have family there and I highly doubt they will be out of school until March.

Here is a source for Germany: https://www.dw.com/en/covid-germany-schools-lockdown-digitalization/a-56147857
Here is a source for Austria: https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-austria/update-1-austria-extends-third-covid-19-lockdown-to-feb-8-idUSL1N2JS083
Here is a source for the UK: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain/uk-hopes-to-ease-lockdown-from-march-minister-idUSKBN29M06F

Thanks, but there is nothing in this source that supports the idea that schools in Germany - especially elementary schools - will likely remain closed through February or even into March, which was the PP's contention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I'm grateful the school system is acting responsibly to help stop the spread.

covid doesn't spread in schools.

Is this a joke? Oh yes it does! My sister’sPA school closed due to so many cases of Covid spreading through her school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I'm grateful the school system is acting responsibly to help stop the spread.

covid doesn't spread in schools.

Is this a joke? Oh yes it does! My sister’sPA school closed due to so many cases of Covid spreading through her school.

DP. Of course there will be cases in schools. Infection rates in schools tend to reflect community spread, but are generally lower than the level of spread in the surrounding community. You don't know if the cases were spreading through the school, or whether they were acquired outside of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved for this year. But I can’t stay away for another year. Solo-parenting our kids has been very stressful as my spouse went back in person in June and I work full-time too, which I don’t think I could have managed on my own without school for a full school year. March- August were difficult enough without much help, my spouse was only remote April-June. Our kids miss their dad, I miss him as well, and living as quasi-nomads is trying, at best. But the children are happy, have been in school since late August, and we’ve only had two potential exposures since we started. One class shut for a week, the other, in a separate incident, for 3 days. There has been no community spread in the school.

For the curious-

No routine testing
Class size is max of 12
Children and teacher are masked all day inside (this is elementary school and I have a K student who remembers no different than wearing the mask at school; so age has not been an issue in remaining properly masked)
Classrooms were retrofitted with a bathroom so children never leave the classroom to go into common areas
They eat at their desks which are spaced 6 feet apart
Each classroom has an outdoor entrance so children don’t mingle between grades
Playground equipment is wiped down between class usage and each grade has a separate recess block

With no testing, you cannot know spread. Sounds terrible to take the kids from their dad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, the shifting goalposts are alienating parents all across the city. I'm a liberal, longtime DC resident with children in DCPS for 5 or 6 years. I support unions, but have become fed up with the lack of transparency, honesty, leadership I can have confidence in and intelligent planning to reopen public elementary schools on both the part of the WTU and the mayor and her people. I feel rotten for the hard-working and decent admins and teachers at our neighborhood DCPS. They clearly aren't getting the help or support they need from any quarter to plan or move ahead on good form.

Blaming the vicissitudes of a harsh pandemic for leadership failings and union intransigence at the expense of kids is no longer working for me. If things haven't changed by the fall, we're out of DCPS. Out of the area, perhaps. Out of the public school system, definitely.

I think blaming the union or DCPS is misguided. Remember, this is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime pandemic and where we are wasn't inevitable. What if back in February we had competent federal leadershipthat got ahead of it, with mass testing contract tracing, funding for school HVAC upgrades, etc. Yes, the goalposts are moving. Yes, the communication has been bad. But these entities were not set up to make these types of massive decisions. Not their expertise. It didn't have to be this way, don't forget that. Instead we got a do-nothing moron who wished it would go away and when it didn't, let everyone else figure it out however they could.

Not to defend Trump and his incompetent administration, but the truth is that countries like Germany that did have competent pandemic management now also are in a situation with high community spread, in some places much higher than DC. Yet, they managed to have open schools despite that. The difference is leadership at the top that didn't allow teachers unions to run the show, and a populace that didn't demand fancy HVAC upgrades in order to educate their kids. Yes, now German schools are closed since mid-December, but they will not be closed for the rest of the school year like we likely will be.

Schools are closed in Germany, Austria, and the UK, and will be into February, maybe even into March. No need to compare. Each country is doing what they think is needed. That is the difference. In hindsight we are all smarter, at least I'd like to think so. Currently we have the worst data since the spring outbreak. My thinking is not to open. The vaccine is here. My thinking is to wait until teachers and staff get the vaccine and open maybe later in spring. Moving from DC? My thinking is that it is even worse in just about every other state in the US. To all those out there wanting to open or move, calm your passions and think a little bit longer.

How insightful. Yes, we can absolutely compare the fact that other countries thought that public schools need to stay open as much as possible, and have acted accordingly. The fact that much of US schools never opened in the fall is shameful.

How is it shameful? Literally the US has NEVER valued public education, never. You expect a sudden change of heart because of a pandemic??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, the shifting goalposts are alienating parents all across the city. I'm a liberal, longtime DC resident with children in DCPS for 5 or 6 years. I support unions, but have become fed up with the lack of transparency, honesty, leadership I can have confidence in and intelligent planning to reopen public elementary schools on both the part of the WTU and the mayor and her people. I feel rotten for the hard-working and decent admins and teachers at our neighborhood DCPS. They clearly aren't getting the help or support they need from any quarter to plan or move ahead on good form.

Blaming the vicissitudes of a harsh pandemic for leadership failings and union intransigence at the expense of kids is no longer working for me. If things haven't changed by the fall, we're out of DCPS. Out of the area, perhaps. Out of the public school system, definitely.

I think blaming the union or DCPS is misguided. Remember, this is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime pandemic and where we are wasn't inevitable. What if back in February we had competent federal leadershipthat got ahead of it, with mass testing contract tracing, funding for school HVAC upgrades, etc. Yes, the goalposts are moving. Yes, the communication has been bad. But these entities were not set up to make these types of massive decisions. Not their expertise. It didn't have to be this way, don't forget that. Instead we got a do-nothing moron who wished it would go away and when it didn't, let everyone else figure it out however they could.

Not to defend Trump and his incompetent administration, but the truth is that countries like Germany that did have competent pandemic management now also are in a situation with high community spread, in some places much higher than DC. Yet, they managed to have open schools despite that. The difference is leadership at the top that didn't allow teachers unions to run the show, and a populace that didn't demand fancy HVAC upgrades in order to educate their kids. Yes, now German schools are closed since mid-December, but they will not be closed for the rest of the school year like we likely will be.

Schools are closed in Germany, Austria, and the UK, and will be into February, maybe even into March. No need to compare. Each country is doing what they think is needed. That is the difference. In hindsight we are all smarter, at least I'd like to think so. Currently we have the worst data since the spring outbreak. My thinking is not to open. The vaccine is here. My thinking is to wait until teachers and staff get the vaccine and open maybe later in spring. Moving from DC? My thinking is that it is even worse in just about every other state in the US. To all those out there wanting to open or move, calm your passions and think a little bit longer.

How insightful. Yes, we can absolutely compare the fact that other countries thought that public schools need to stay open as much as possible, and have acted accordingly. The fact that much of US schools never opened in the fall is shameful.

How is it shameful? Literally the US has NEVER valued public education, never. You expect a sudden change of heart because of a pandemic??

The point is that it’s shameful that they never valued it, and the pandemic has made that abundantly clear.